FireWire®

Fast becoming the audio industry's standard for cross-platform communication, FireWire technology (IEEE-1394) is a flexible, scalable, and low-cost digital interface with several important advantages over other solutions, including:

  • Broad industry support
  • Up to 63 connections per subnet, unlike USB
  • Guaranteed bandwidth for up to 192 audio channels
  • Ultra low latency – less than 500ms from any node to any node
  • Control and audio over single connection, without PC/Mac intervention

FireWire design can be difficult, however, and integrated solutions have not offered the reliability, flexibility, and power needed for today's pro and MI designs...until now.

Introducing the DICE family of FireWire products from TC Applied Electronics. From the flagship DICE II to the economical DICE Mini, these powerhouses are complete, low-latency, fully integrated IEEE-1394 systems on a single chip. Each DICE product provides multi-channel IEC 61883-6-compliant audio streaming and routing to and from popular audio formats, while on-board crosspoint routers allow full interconnection between any combination of its AES3, ADAT, TDIF, I2S, and TDM(DSAI) I/O ports.

In addition,

  • the patented JETTM PLL's remove virtually all jitter providing near-perfect clock recovery
  • hardware (not firmware) execution guarantees low latency and excellent phase alignment
  • all rates up to 192kHz are supported on applicable interfaces
  • nearly all (99%) of the on-board ARM-7 CPU is available for host and UI functions. The SDK from TCAT is free of charge and includes all the tools needed to quick-start your your application development.

Click the following links for information on each DICE product, including the DICE II-PROM, an OEM module providing a turn-key hardware solution for DICEII operation, perfect for small volume manufacturers looking to reduce development and production costs.

DICE II DICE II PROMDICE Jr. DICE Mini